


Making the (S)elfish Choice

by speccygeekgrrl



Category: Disenchantment (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Friendship, Gen, Spoilers for 1x09 but who didn't binge the entire show in one sitting, What if Bean made the less obvious choice?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-30 17:25:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15756366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speccygeekgrrl/pseuds/speccygeekgrrl
Summary: Luci tells her not to think about it. Bean takes a moment to think about it anyways, and comes to a different conclusion.





	Making the (S)elfish Choice

**Author's Note:**

> ....first in the fandom, I guess? Sorry not sorry.

Luci tells her not to think about it too much, but for a moment, Bean hesitates-- and the moment stretches out as she considers her two options. Her mother-- her _mother_ , lost to her for fifteen years, the reason for her father's insistence on finding the Elixir of Life, the reason she even has the Eternity Pendant in her hand-- or Elfo.

It should be an easier choice, she thinks. She's only known Elfo a few months, and they've been an incredibly weird few months. Even though it's only been a few months, he's still her best friend... but he's not her mother. If she brings him back instead of Dagmar, she'll have to answer to Zøg, and that's all kinds of a pain in the ass she doesn't want to handle.

Bean's been dealing with the loss of her mother for the majority of her life. She's lived longer without Dagmar than with her. And the thought of losing her best friend now, after all the shit he's been put through in the course of Zøg's quest for this exact thing that could restore his life...

It should be an easier choice. She should do what she would be expected to do, and loop the pendant over the neck of the statue that was her mother. But Bean finds herself on her knees next to Elfo's small and pathetic corpse, and before she can think about it any more she gently lifts his head to slide the necklace over it. The pendant glows, and the glow suffuses Elfo's body and radiates searingly bright light through the room. Bean flings a hand in front of her eyes and holds her breath.

"...Bean?" Elfo sounds like he's waking up from the crash after a three day bender, weak and unsure of how he made it to where he's found himself coming to. "What-- weren't we in Elfland? What happened?" 

"You died," Luci says, and adds, "Gross," when Bean pulls Elfo into her arms and kisses him, a clumsy clashing of lips in her relief to have him back.

"I-- okay," Elfo says, when she kisses his cheek and then his forehead next. "I kinda remember that." His hand comes up to the pendant around his neck, and he pulls back far enough to give her a puzzled look. "How'd you get this thing to work?"

"Don't worry about it," Bean says. She can face the repercussions of her choice later.

"Okay..."

"I'm kinda glad you're not dead," Luci says. "My job would have been way too easy without you."

"Oh, please, like we aren't all making the same bad decisions." Elfo rolls his eyes.

"Yeah, but it's not as fun without you," Bean says. She still hasn't let go of Elfo. She doesn't let go of him, either, as they sneak through the castle and back into Bean's room. She can't hide his resurrection for long, but overnight is long enough to start figuring out what to say when Zøg finds out.

Elfo's used to being kept in Sorcerio's workshop, but there's no use for him there any more. Bean is exhausted from the length of a day that had her lose, find, lose again, and bring back to life her best friend, and she collapses onto her bed and curls up around him like he's her favorite toy. He fits in the space her curled-up body makes almost perfectly. She thinks that he smells like sweet mint and chocolate, like he always does when she gets this close to him, and she sighs heavily.

"Bean?"

"Yeah, Elfo?"

"...thank you," he says, very softly. "For whatever you did to bring me back." 

He doesn't know. And she's not going to burden him with the weight of her choice. At the end of the bed, Luci makes a stifled snort, and Bean knows he'll reveal her secret as soon as it's funny or hurtful to do so, but at least right now, she's not going to put that on Elfo's slight shoulders.

"Don't worry about it," she says. "I just... couldn't stand to lose you."

"Really?"

"You have no idea," Luci says, and Bean kicks him off the end of the bed with a thump.

"I'm tired. Aren't you all tired? I think it's time to go to sleep," Bean says in a rush.

"...right here?" Elfo asks when she doesn't release him from her arms. 

"Yeah. Right here."

She doesn't fall asleep quickly, her mind working overtime on the choice she made and whether it was the one she should have made. She could have had her mother back... but whether it was the morally correct choice or not, Bean knows in her heart that it was the right choice for her.


End file.
